Dynastic Cong vs multi-starrer BJP

But forget the top post in the party which Congressmen have ceded, for all time to come, to the Family. What about the second rank (or eleventh rank to be precise since like Amitabh Bachchan of yore, the top ten spots are occupied by the materfamilias of 10 Janpath) of leaders in the party?

The common impression that the party only has a bunch of senior citizens to fall back on — Messrs Arjun Singh, Natwar Singh, Manmohan Singh, Motilal Vora, Pranab Mukherjee, N.D. Tiwari et al — is, Congressmen insist, grossly misleading. And they have an impressive list to back their case.

And the list is not confined to chief ministers Digvijay Singh, A.K. Antony, Ajit Jogi and Ashok Gehlot either. In every state, the Congress has young leaders with promise even though you and I may not have seen much of them on TV. They are all in their forties and fifties, with just a sprinkling of 60-plus.

There is Ramesh Chennithala, K. Muralidharan and Oomen Chandy in Kerala, G.K. Vasan and Jayanti Natarajan in Tamil Nadu, Mallikarjuna Kharge, G. Parameswar, and S.K. Patil in Karnataka, Renuka Chaudhury and Rajshekhar Reddy in AP; Mukul Wasnik and Gurudas Kamat in Maharashtra, Shakti Singh Gohal, Madhusudan Mistry, Naresh Rawal in Gujarat, Jagmeet Brar in Punjab, Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Kumari Selja in Haryana, Subhash Yadav, Rahul Singh and Jyotiraditya Scindia (only in his 30s) in MP, Jamuna Devi in Chhattisgarh, Sarfaraz Ahmed in Jharkhand, Salman Khursheed, Pramod Tiwari, Rita Joshi and R.P.N. Singh in UP, Vijay Bahuguna and Harish Rawat in Uttaranchal, Paban Singh Ghatowar and Pradyut Bordoloi in Assam, Ajay Maken in Delhi, Shakil Ahmad and Veena Sahi in Bihar…The list goes on.

And at the Centre, there are the better known leaders — Ahmad Patel, Anand Sharma, Kapil Sibal, Ambika Soni, Jaipal Reddy, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Jairam Ramesh.

Not only do they have a host of younger leaders but, as per Mani Shankar Aiyar’s spin, they have a much more talented Generation Next than the BJP.

‘‘The BJP might appear to have a galaxy of second-rank leaders but when it comes to intellectual inputs, Vajpayee has only one man to turn to — Arun Shourie. He is the tanpura and the tabla, the sitar and the mridangam in the BJP orchestra,’’ Aiyar quips.

The second-rung of the Congress does not shine, he adds, ‘‘because there is a diversity of tasks to be performed by people who have sectoral abilities. They do not have a high visibility in newspaper headlines but are working for the party and are recognized within the party.’’

The BJP’s second-rank comprises solely of ‘‘political animals’’, all snapping at each other’s heels to get on top, he says. The Congress, on the other hand, has a range of talented men and women — economists, intellectuals, organisation men, professionals — all of whom work behind the scenes for the cause of the Party, or so Aiyar insists.

The truth, however, goes a lot deeper. True, the Congress is not entirely bereft of talent or youth. But the real reason for the Congress’ moribund state lies in the very structure of the party.

As one senior AICC functionary put it succinctly: ‘‘The reason why Congress’ Gen Next is invisible is that while the BJP functions like an organisation, the Congress runs like a court.’’ And as in every palace, it is the courtiers who are rewarded, the ever-shifting coterie that calls the shots.

In the process, leaders do not derive their power from loyalty to the organisation coupled with individual enterprise, but from sycophancy and playing it safe.

Sure, Congress still attracts those who cannot stomach the ideological extremes of India’s Right and Left, but its promising young leaders must remain content to be, like the troupes in Saroj Khan choreographed Bollywood dance numbers, part of the background chorus that brings out the hero and heroine in clear relief. For the viewing public, it is no match for the multi-starrer BJP.